


foundations of hope

by BlackJacketsandPens



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Canon Divergent as hell AU, Gen, Multi, aka nagito komaeda is suffering, there is a lot of upsetting stuff in here nagito is not okay guys, what if nagito's luck prevented him from being brainwashed?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-04 07:23:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15836514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackJacketsandPens/pseuds/BlackJacketsandPens
Summary: Nagito Komaeda - in a burst of luck (good or bad, who knows?) - was late getting back to Hope's Peak Academy that rainy day, and was not there to be brainwashed. He did not become an Ultimate Despair: he is the only survivor of Class 77-B.Lost and broken in this new, despairing world, he joins the Future Foundation with one single thread of hope to keep him going:he will save his classmates.SDR2 AU, follows mostly the game with more than a few changes.





	1. Prologue: The End of Hope('s Peak)

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't look to see if anyone else had written this yet, and I'm not going to. 
> 
> Anyway, god, poor Nagito. I'm sorry in advance, darling. You're not going to enjoy yourself. I hope you all do, though! 
> 
> TWs in this chapter for suicidal thoughts and some DR-level violence.

His train was late. He hates trains -- hates most forms of transportation he’s not directly in control of, really, why in the world had a _plane_ felt like a good idea, those were literally the worst of the worst -- but he’d gotten back a little late, and a train was the fastest way to get from here to Hope’s Peak. He had to hurry, too; the email mistakenly sent to his address (he had no phone, but he’d checked it in a library because sometimes Chiaki sent him pictures, the only one who remembered he existed post-suspension, god, she was too wonderful to someone like him) was...he knew something was wrong, knew enough to trace it, and he had a name.

Junko Enoshima...he has to find her and stop her before she does something _horrible_.

But he’s late, he’s very late, and-- he doesn’t know, and even years in the future he’ll never be able to tell, if it was good luck or bad luck that kept him from being there that day, that moment.

By the time he gets there, it’s _too_ late.

The Reserve Course students aren’t clustered at the gates. That’s the first thing he realizes -- no, they’re _open_. The gates are open. He pauses only briefly, noticing one of the signs is slightly chewed on, and he recognizes the bite marks. Gundam was here? Why was Gundam...his blood goes cold. No. No, no. Not his class.

He breaks into a run that doesn’t last very long, and he all but collapses at the front doors to the school, wheezing badly. Damn his health! He needs to get to the others, he needs to...he needs to make sure they’re alright...for the first time he wishes he had a cellphone. If he could just call Chiaki...no, he’d decided to do this on his own, to protect his beloved classmates; he was the only one unworthy enough to take this sort of job on. Chiaki was too good. But if he’s late, then what was it all for?

He’s still sitting on the ground when he hears the ring of hundreds of cellphones at once. It comes from everywhere, in the building, on the grounds, surrounding him. “What--?” He gasps out, standing...and then the bodies start to fall. He screams, backing up, covering his mouth with his hands. This can’t be happening, this can’t be real-- that’s his first thought. It’s not real.

But…it’s real. The crack-crunch-splat of bodies hitting the ground is too loud to be fake, the blood pooling beneath the bodies smells too familiar. He knows death, he knows it intimately, and this is not fake. This isn’t right, he thinks, horrorstruck. Death like this, at Hope’s Peak? This place is a symbol of hope, of the best and brightest, of the shining star’s of the world’s future! People can’t be dying here!

Even when he recognizes the uniforms of the dead as Reserve Course, it doesn’t quite mitigate the horror-- no, it’s worse. He remembers the email he’d gotten -- mistakenly, as it had only been _meant_ for the Reserves -- showing the tape of the Killing Game, showing that Kamukura person, showing...telling them about the human experiments. He hadn’t believed it: how could this place, this wonderful place, be doing something so terrible? But...even if it wasn’t true, it was enough to start the riots.

And now they were...killing each other? He creeps towards the nearest body, going for its phone, and only glimpses seconds of-- _something_ , some animation with a bear, before he drops the phone and staggers back. What--?

“Junko,” he says aloud, then. That’s the only explanation. The name he’d found. She’d done something, sent the email, sent this video, caused all this. This woman was-- she was trying to _destroy_ Hope’s Peak. there was no way he could allow that.

The gun he’d gotten overseas weighs heavily in his jacket. He won’t allow it. He won’t allow her to destroy this place, this place that accepted him for his luck and this place where he can be around people who embody the hope he desperately clings to. This is-- he can’t let her. Someone like him is the only person who can stop her.

He runs through the bodies, careless of how his shoes and the bottom of his pants stain red and grow wet and heavy with blood. He has to stop her. He has to stop her. He can’t be too late.

 _Please,_ he thinks. _Let this be good luck._ He was late getting here, late getting back. Wasn’t that enough? Wasn’t that enough bad for him to be able to get to her in time? He has absolute faith in his luck, he always has -- it needs to hold. It needs to hold. It has to. It will. He has to have faith, like always.

He finds her, eventually -- he knows its her, can feel something horrifically wrong with her even as he approaches. It’s like a miasma of...of malice, of despair, swirling and twisting and black as midnight, and he feels sick and frightened for a moment: she is...she is despair, he realizes. It’s worse than he’d thought. She _is_ despair. The embodiment of it. He pulls the gun from his jacket before his thoughts get even further, and he clicks the hammer back.

“Are you Junko Enoshima?” He asks, and the girl turns, teeth showing in her wide grin. She’s pretty, objectively speaking, blonde hair pinned up in pigtails, and now that he thinks about it, hasn’t he seen her in magazines? Huh. “You must be. What despair…so everything I’ve heard is true.”

She laughs, and it sends ice down his spine. “Who the hell are you?” She asks, tilting her head. “Oh, is that a gun?” Her voice changes completely, like she grew bored of it and swapped to another tone entirely. “You’re really going to try to kill me? How fun!”

“Well...I don’t know if someone as worthless as me can,” he admits. “After all, you’re an Ultimate. Trash like me doesn’t stand a chance. But...I think I might get lucky.” He lifts the gun to point it at her. “I hope I do. If someone like me can kill you, then you aren’t Despair. You’re more worthless than I am. And then everyone will be alright.”

She blinks, and then bursts into laughter. “Oh!” She says. “That obnoxious speech...that’s who you are!” Her grin is a shark’s. “You’re Nagito Komaeda, aren’t you?”

His blood turns to ice, but his aim doesn’t falter. “That you know my name...I’d say it’s an honor -- and it is, that you know who a piece of trash like me is -- but...how? How do you know it?”

“Why, your classmate told me!” She says happily, walking towards him. “Mikan, right? She told me aaaaall about her beloved classmates. Even you! Oh, I knew there was someone missing! That ugly bitch sister of mine counted wrong.” She shakes her head, and he feels a little dizzy. “Too bad, Nagito. You’re too late! You missed the fun.”

“What are you talking about?” He asks shakily. “What did you do?”

No-- no. It can’t be. He can’t be too late. The only thing he’s good at is being _lucky!_ How is this good luck? _How?_ It’s impossible!

She just laughs. “Should we show him the video, too, Junko?” Someone else asks, and he glances to the side to see a girl with short black hair, watching from a short distance away. “You wanted the whole class.”

“Hmmmmmm….” Junko seems to ponder this dramatically. “Nah!” She almost seems to shift, pigtails into a ponytail and glasses out of nowhere. “This one wouldn’t take it like the rest, I think. He smells funny. Too much hope.” She tilts her head. “No, I think it’s better to leave him like this.”

Her smile gets closer and closer and he can’t move, he realizes, his hand is shaking now and his breathing is loud in his ears. “Knowing,” she says slowly, savoring every word, cheeks flushed like she’s getting off on it. “That he’s too late. That aaaaaaaall of his classmates -- Every. Single. One. -- fell into despair. Because! Of! Me!” She bursts into wild laughter for a moment, then stops just as quickly as she started. “Well. Not the class rep. She’s dead. Sorry! But at least you have everyone else. They’re alive and well-- just fuuuuull of despair. Just like _me._ ”

He stops listening after that, not even sure if she kept talking. He feels like the ground’s disappeared from underneath him, like-- like the whole world has turned on its axis and left him to flounder in empty space, without oxygen or solid ground. Everyone-- everyone has fallen into despair? His whole class? Fuyuhiko, Peko, Kazuichi, Sonia-- Mahiru and Hiyoko, Mikan, Ibuki, Gundam-- Nekomaru, Akane, Teruteru, Ryota-- all of them? All of them...turned to despair? The bright hopes, the hopes he’d spent so much time with, the shining classmates he’d loved with everything he had? And-- and Chiaki was _dead?_ His friend, his only friend, who he’d thought was safe because his luck couldn’t touch her when she was so far away-- _dead?_ Their class rep, the brightest of them all--

He’s crying, he can feel the wetness on his face and he knows it’s not just the rain that’s been falling since he got there. “No,” he manages. _“No!”_ He can’t-- he can’t-- it can’t be. It can’t be. It can’t be. It can’t be. How is this luck? How is this good? This is-- this is the worst luck. This is so very unlucky. Where is the good? Where is his good luck, where is the hope that has to come? Where is it? It has to be that he can kill her.

She’s still laughing, grinning, her eyes black pits of despair, and he pulls the trigger.

He doesn’t realize anything happened, at first. He’d fired the gun, and then...he blinks. She’s not dead. But she’s so close? What…she grins at him and points down, and he can almost hear the cartoon sound effect of her wiggling finger. He follows where she’s pointing, and it’s only when he sees the gun on the ground along with his left forearm that he realizes what happened.

The pain hits him, then, and he lets out a shocked whimper as he falls to the ground, clutching the stump-- his arm is gone up to the elbow, hacked right off, lying in front of him. His eyes manage to focus briefly on the black-haired girl, holding a bloody knife, but then they flick back to Junko, who’s still giggling. “Bye,” she says. “Hope your luck holds out! It’ll be more fun if you make it.”

He passes out then, feeling like he’s falling into those twin black pits of her eyes.

* * *

He wakes briefly several more times, delirious and in pain, and only catches spurts of conversations that don’t make sense.

_“--alive, it’s progressed so far--”_

_“--talent, he’ll be useful to the Fu--”_

_“--reverse it, just stop further deterior--”_

_“--only survivor of 77-B--”_

_“--thing you found him, Yukizome--”_

None of it makes sense, and he lets himself drift away. Why should he bother to understand it? It’s meaningless. Everything is meaningless. What kind of fragile hope shatters like this, shatters so completely thanks to-- thanks only to one person? One person had destroyed it all, destroyed Hope’s Peak and his entire class, left him alive just because. He was late. He’d been late, and he hadn’t been able to stop them. To save them. To protect them. All he’d ever, ever wanted in life was to be useful before he died, and he’d thought he could save his classmates, be useful to them and protect them from whatever disaster was coming. He was worthless, trash, barely even possessed of a talent, but it was the one thing he could rely on. His luck. And it had failed him when it mattered, gave him nothing but misfortune. He’d been too late, and his only friend was dead, and the rest of his class was...they were...they had...

Where was hope in this? Where was it? He needed to know.

When he wakes, he wakes alone in a small, shabby hospital room. The stump of his arm is bandaged, but so is his neck and head and several other places, and he’s confused for a long moment before he decides it doesn’t matter. He falls asleep again, and when he wakes up the second time, he’s not alone anymore.

The man calls himself Kazuo Tengan, former principal of Hope’s Peak, and he tells him what’s happened. About...The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History. The destruction of Hope’s Peak was just the beginning. Junko Enoshima and her Ultimate Despairs had kickstarted it, spreading war and death and despair across the entire world, chaos and violence, indiscriminate and without meaning. The world is in despair, and he’d slept through months of it.

Not that, Tengan says, that’s his fault. They’d found him half-dead in the aftermath of the Reserve Course’s mass suicide, and taken him in. That’s when they’d discovered his illnesses, and they’d done their best to reverse those as well. Whatever was left of his lymphoma -- if anything -- was in remission, and his dementia’s progress was permanently halted, even if they couldn’t restore the parts of his brain it had already damaged. He’s not dying anymore, the old man tells him. Isn’t that lucky?

He doesn’t really register more than that. “...get out,” he says, his voice wobbling and hoarse. The old man blinks. “Get out!” He repeats, voice rising sharply and shrilly. “Get out! Get out get out get out get out _get out!”_

The old man leaves, rummaging in a pocket probably for a phone, but Nagito doesn’t care. He screams, long and loud, all but throwing himself out of the hospital bed to get to the window, ripping the curtains open. The sky is red, blood red, the buildings he sees are bombed out and broken and smoking. The world is-- the world is gone mad. The _world_ has fallen to despair. The world has-- the world’s all-- and she’d done it, Junko Enoshima had done it-- and her Ultimate Despairs? No, no, that had to be them, had to be his beloved classmates. She’d made them like her and now they were--

He doesn’t know who comes in to find him sitting on the floor sobbing, rocking back and forth and keening wordlessly-- he doesn’t remember the next few weeks at all, save for a blue-haired woman in a wheelchair that keeps trying to talk to him, her words filtered through a computer screen and a virtual white rabbit.

Nothing matters. Nothing at all matters. Everything is despair. The world, his classmates, it’s all gone. It’s his luck’s fault, he’s convinced. The good luck is that he is no longer dying, but the bad luck is-- the bad luck far outweighs it. The bad luck-- everything is bad luck. There is nothing that his luck can give him to make up for this. He’s always known he only clings to hope so fiercely to escape the despair he’s always on the edge of, but without hope-- without the Academy, without his classmates, with the world broken and shattered and the symbols of hope turned to despairing monsters-- what’s left? He can’t even die anymore to escape it. He tried once, but they caught him and handcuffed him to the hospital bed.

Why won’t they let him die? Why won’t they let him escape this existence of despair? He doesn’t want to live if there’s no hope for him to hold onto. He’s trash. He’s worthless, and even more worthless because he couldn’t save anyone, couldn’t be useful, couldn’t help the people he cared about. He’s useless, worthless _nothing_.

He doesn’t know how long he lives like this, a broken shell in a hospital room, but eventually something changes.

“Would you like to join the Future Foundation, Mr. Komaeda?”

He blinks, turning to look at the old man. Tengan has been coming a lot, but until now Nagito’s never listened to a word of it. “...what?” He asks, hoarsely.

“Would you like to join the Future Foundation?” Tengan repeats. “It’s a bit unorthodox to recruit you this way, but I _am_ the chairman, so I think I can make an exception.”

“...what is it?” Nagito asks. He’s never...he’s heard the term before, perhaps, but he’s never asked or cared.

Tengan smiles, and it’s just insincere enough that it’s almost comforting. So, then, this isn’t out of kindness. “We’re trying to bring hope back to the world, Mr. Komaeda,” he says. “To defeat Junko Enoshima and end the despair this world has been plunged into. Give it a brighter future. There’s a great many things I’m sure you could say about our goal, but it all boils down to that. We are a group that fights for hope.” The smile widens, and Nagito understands. “From what I’ve heard about you, you’d be a valuable addition to our ranks.”

“...you want my luck,” he says hollowly. “You want my worthless talent, and you know enough about me to know how to try and convince me. Talk about hope, ending despair, saving the world...that’s what you think I want to hear.” He smiles, and it’s empty. “I’d believe you were the chairman, Mr. Tengan. You’re very manipulative. Were you involved in the human experiments, too?” He knows they’re real, now; how else would they have had the technology available to stop the progression of a fatal brain disease? It figures. Just another killing blow to his worldview, his existence.

Tengan’s smile fades. “You’re bright, Mr. Komaeda,” he says flatly. “We almost have as much use for that as we do your talent. So what do you say?”

Nagito is quiet for a long moment. “...fine,” he agrees. “I’ll join.”

Maybe he doesn’t have anything to believe in anymore. Maybe this despairing world, this despairing existence -- everything torn away from him, and truly unable to escape -- has ground him down into nothing, and maybe that lifeline called hope is gone from his grasp. But he is Nagito Komaeda, and even if he’s lost to despair, even if the _world_ is, he still...

Maybe he’s an idiot for falling for such obvious manipulation, but he doesn’t care. They have use for him. He’s worthless, incapable of saving anyone, incapable of even holding onto the belief he’d built his life around-- but they have use for him. He can be useful to these people, and maybe he can bring hope back to the world. Back to himself. So he’ll let himself be used.

And...maybe, somehow, he can save his classmates.

Yes-- he’ll hold onto that. That will be his hope. His new lifeline. He will join the Future Foundation, and he will fight. He will fight despair, and he will hold onto that hope in his chest and fight for it as fiercely as he believed in the existence of hope in the world, believed in Hope’s Peak, once before.

His hope-- that _he will save his classmates._

That is what Nagito Komaeda will live for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I mean, if they made Izuru goddamn Kamukura, they can cure Nagito's cancer and prevent his brain from rotting. Honestly. There's no fixing his brain, though, because he wouldn't be Nagito anymore, but at least he isn't dying.
> 
> Also man, honestly, don't tell me that the state of the world AND losing his classmates AND Chiaki's death wouldn't just straight up break him. He's very fragile, and has such an obsessive belief in hope that tearing it all way in one fell swoop would...it would hurt. 
> 
> As for the bulk of the fic, it might be just a little different-- you'll see!


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 1: Killing Island Begins.

The beach is nice, Nagito thinks. It’s warm, at least, and bright, and even if he isn’t joining them, the others are having fun.

The others...it’s been hard the past few hours, trying to stay in character. He’s missed them so much, he can’t put it it into words. So many years searching, fighting, trying to find a way towards his one and only hope...and here it is. Here they are. He's sure this must be a bit strange for them, but they’ve adjusted quickly! Except Hajime, but he’s been told about him, and assumes it’s because he’s Reserve Course. Not exceptional enough to let it roll off him so easily.

All the same, the dark haired boy seems...there’s just something about him Nagito finds interesting. Even if he _is_ talentless here, as himself, on the outside he’s...and that he chose to do that speaks to a love of the talented that Nagito can understand completely.

Ah, well! He smiles at Chiaki, who sits dozing beside him, and stands up to finally join the rest of the group playing in the water. Usami is nearby, so it should be fairly safe, and he has two arms again...well, why not, right?

The sky goes dark, then, and Nagito goes pale. No. No, it can’t be. It _can’t_.

The group panics, looking around in confusion, and Nagito scrambles to his feet, shaking Chiaki awake. Usami is panicking as well, looking around in horror -- she knows, too, she must. Something is wrong, something is very wrong. “Wh-wh-wh-what is this!?” The small rabbit cries. “I-I didn’t do anything! There’s no way this is--”

“What?” Hajime asks. “What are you--”

The monitor on the nearby palm tree crackles to life, then, and a voice comes out of it that makes Nagito’s legs give. Chiaki is beside him to keep him upright, but all the same, he never thought he’d hear that voice again. Never wanted to. Why here? Why _here?_

“Mic check, mic check!” The voice warbles, cartoonishly friendly to the point of being disturbing. “Can you hear me?” It laughs. “Surpriiiiise~! Sorry to keep you all waiting! The main event is here, and we can stop messing around with the _boring_ preshow. Now! Hustle on over to Jabberwock Park! Don’t you _dare_ be late!”

The monitor shuts off.

Usami is the first to react, squealing in horror. “N-No, it can’t be-- Is this--” She manages. “This is bad, this is very bad! I have to do something! It’s up to me!” She vanishes, as she does, and leaves the rest of them alone in their fear. Nagito-- he can’t think clearly. No, no, it can’t be! How is this possible? They were supposed to be safe here! Is this his bad luck again? Is this--

“We should go too, I think,” Chiaki says softly, tugging on his arm. “We should hurry...”

Nagito glances at the others, at the ones hurrying out of the water to grab their clothes, at Togami and Hajime, preparing to follow and looking confused and frightened, and takes a deep breath. “That’s right,” he says. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to ignore something like this…”

It isn’t. He _knows_ it isn’t. This is the worst possible thing that could happen. But they...they have to face it. They can’t run away. They...can’t hide. Their hope is...they have to fight for it. And he’ll protect it. Whatever he has to do.

He catches Hajime’s eyes as they run towards the park -- well, he’s not _running_ , his health is better than it was the first time he was fifteen but it’s still not near anything good; he can only manage a brisk jog at best -- and the Reserve boy looks frightened as well, sick with it. It’s...he wishes it weren’t reassuring, but it is. Hajime is an odd one out, he can tell, even here. So is he-- it’s...nice, to not be alone in being alone. (Chiaki is...an exception.)

He’s not one of the first to get there, but not the last, and eventually all sixteen of them are there. He leans hands on his knees to catch his breath a moment, then straightens to watch the others, watch Usami. She’s shouting -- “Where are you!? Where are you hiding?!” -- and Nagito is...afraid. She’s very brave, the little bunny, but to openly challenge _him_ like this...it isn’t going to go well.

The laugh echoes in the dark sky, then, and out of nowhere...he’s there. The black and white bear that Nagito knows far too well. He’s never met him personally, not until this moment, but he still haunts his nightmares. To see him in _person_...it’s so much more frightening. This thing, this creature of despair, this _monster--_ he doesn’t look like much, about Usami’s size, but...he knows what this thing is capable of.

But...how? How is he…

“Helloooo there~!” The bear says cheerily. “Thanks for waiting and long time no see! I am Monokuma, the headmaster of the Academy~!” He clears his throat. “And the first thing I have to say is-- _lame!”_ His voice rises enough that everyone steps back. “Lame! _So_ lame! Lamer than the lamest-- anything!”

Nagito swallows, but Usami is there in front of them all. “So it _is_ you!” She says. “But- but how!? How is Monokuma here?!”

“Shut up!” Monokuma shouts, still loud like he’s being broadcast on a speaker. “I’m soooo mad, you know! Absolutely furious! About ready to barf! What’s all this about a _‘heart-throbbing school trip’_?! It’s so boring! This just ain’t fun! You better knock it off!”

Nagito and Chiaki share a glance. This-- no. Is this...?

“Nobody wants to see this happy-happy joy-joy crap!” Monokuma shouts. “What’s really entertaining for everyone is other people’s suffering!”

“What the fuck is this?” Fuyuhiko demands, taking a step forward and glaring daggers at the bear in front of them. “Nothing you’re saying makes any goddamn sense!”

Togami shifts from foot to foot. “What...is going on? What is that...thing?”

“Be careful everyone!” Usami shouts, nudging Fuyuhiko back as best she can, brandishing her wand. “Stay back! I’ve got this-- I don’t know why he’s here, but with my Magic Stick, I’ll get rid of him!”

She doesn’t see Monokuma behind her, too busy looking at them. “Usami!” Nagito yells, but it’s too late-- the bear jumps her with a gleeful shout, and they disappear in a whirlwind of limbs and shouting. It’s almost cartoonish, and in any other situation it might be funny. But it’s not, and her wand goes flying, landing in pieces feet away. _Oh, no_. Nagito thinks. Without that…

“Gotcha!” Monokuma crows. “Now, what to do-- oh, I know! White rabbits are soooo boring and last year! Time to remake ya~!”

Usami’s screams of fright are hard to hear, and everyone watching is frozen. Nagito feels his heartbeat pick up, his breath starting to come fast-- oh no, now is not a good time for this-- and Chiaki takes his hand. She squeezes, and he manages to calm himself. But even so-- even so-- this is bad. This is bad.

Monokuma steps aside finally, the dust clears, and-- oh, _no_. Usami’s been changed, _corrupted_ \-- an eye is red and half of her is pink, a mockery of Monokuma’s own color scheme, and her little wings and skirt have been replaced by an almost insulting diaper. The rabbit lets out a cry of horror, trembling, and presses her paws to her face. “Wh-what iiiis this?! Change me back!”

“Oh, my,” Monokuma says, and though his grin is permanently wide, it looks wider. “Is Monomi a rebellious little sister?”

“L-Little sister?” Usami manages. “Monomi?”

They argue and banter like this for a while, and Nagito finds it easy to tune it out -- he has to for his own fragile sanity’s sake. He keeps his eyes on the others, on their confusion and fear, and worries. This can’t go like he thinks. This can’t go like _that_.

The others are all frightened, demanding to know what’s going on. Confused, worried-- he tries to convince himself that this will be okay. They won’t do it. They won’t do the same thing. It won’t happen. He won’t _let_ it happen.

“Now then,” Monokuma says brightly, and the volume goes up again, startling him. Oh no. “Since everyone is here, I have an announcement to make as headmaster! From this point on, the _killing school trip_ will now commence!”

Chiaki squeezing his hand is the only thing that keeps him from falling. No. _No_.

“A school trip where nothing bad happens is soooo boring! No one wants to see that! So lets start this killing game! And of course, you bastards are the contestants!”

“C-C-C-Contestants?” Teruteru squeals. “Killing?!”

“Absolutely not!” Monomi shrieks. “I won’t allow it!” she tries to stand firm in front of them, but Monokuma kicks her out of the way. She goes flying, and it’s only because he can’t stand unsupported right now that Nagito doesn’t go check on her.

“What a misbehaving little sister!” Monokuma says. “Now, we got off-topic, but let’s get back to the explanation of this killing school trip.”

“Wh-wh-what do you mean, k-killing school trip?” Mikan wails.

Monokuma laughs. “Isn’t it ooooobvious? You guys are gonna kill each other!”

“K-Kill each other…? I see…” Kazuichi stammers, and then stumbles back with a shriek. _“Kill each other!?”_

“That’s impossible!” Teruteru shouts.

Monokuma looks...smug. That’s the only way Nagito can describe it. So very smug. “Well, it’s sooo boring if you can just leave the island if you all get along,” he says. “If you want out, then please, by all means, kill one of your friends! New rules, you see! You just gotta do that, and then make it through the class trial without getting caught!”

“...class trial?” Chiaki asks. That’s right, she...doesn’t know all of this.

“Yes, indeed-y!” Monokuma chirps. “The class trial is the real crown jewel of this trip! If one of you gets murdered, the rest of you have to participate in one of these~! All of you have to team up to find out who the terrible blackened is-- and if you do, and you vote correctly, you win, and the killer will be punished. But get it wrooooong….and everyone but the killer is punished! _And_ they get to leave, of course.”

“P-Punished?” Kazuichi manages, voice shrill. “Y-You keep sayin’ that, what do you mean _punished---_?”

Monokuma’s red eye flashes. “Why, an execution, of course!”

Someone repeats the word in a scream, but Nagito isn’t sure who it is. This can’t be happening. Not again. Here? A killing game, here? In the-- but how? How is this happening? After everything he’s done, the work he’s put into this-- he won’t let it. He _can’t_ let it. This is his hope, the only hope he has left. He swore he’d-- he’d end this despair, but now…

“D-Don’t fuck with me,” Fuyuhiko stammers, and he realizes he’s missed more of the conversation. Not that he needs to hear it. He’s seen this before.

Kazuichi shakes his head. “Th-that’s right! Who would _kill_ someone?!”

“Well, I’m not _forcing_ you to~” Monokuma says with a laugh. “It’s aaaaall up to you!”

“W-Wait a minute, what if no one kills anyone?!” Mahiru demands. “Are we going to be stuck here forever?! Why do we have to do this?!”

The bear grins. “Isn’t it obvious? There is a reason~!”

“Hold on a second,” Nekomaru cuts him off, stepping forward. “What I wanna know is why we’ve just been standing here listening to this. He’s been running his mouth, but...”

Akane grins viciously, joining him. “Oh, a fight?” She asks, cracking her knuckles. “We gonna beat the crap out of that goddamn bear?”

“Who would dare…” Peko reaches for her sword. “We’ll put a stop to it, with force if necessary.”

“Yeah!” Ibuki cheers, pale and sweating. “I-If you keep saying stuff like that, our athletes’ll kick your ass!”

Nagito steps forward to, shakily. “W-Wait, everyone,” he tries-- he remembers the last one, what happened when-- no, they can’t. They can’t do it like this. But they don’t hear him.

What happens next-- he misses some of the conversation again-- is...beyond belief. No, not beyond belief, not here, but-- even so. Even so…

The giant robots...he hadn’t-- who would expect _that?_ Who possibly could expect that. And f-four of them? The statue, bursting apart to...those robots. This was nothing like-- he’s shaken, frozen in fear, unable to do anything or cry out as they appear, these Monobeasts. The others are panicking, shouting, horrified, but Nagito can’t move. He tries to remember what Miaya’s taught him, tries to recall how to deal with this, but it’s all out of his head. He can’t--

“Don’t be afraid!” Monomi’s voice shakes him out of his panic. “I’ll protect everyone! Even at the cost of my own life!”

“Wait--” Nagito tries. She has spares, he knows, but-- but still--

“Ughhhh,” Monokuma groans. “Your sickly sweet sense of justice is gross. Makes me wanna puke.” A pause. “Oh, I know-- you’ll be my example~!”

The scene before them-- it played out like a disaster movie. No, a horror movie. He hears Ibuki and Teruteru scream, and Kazuichi too, and he wobbles again. It’s all suddenly very distant and far away now, like he’s on another planet, and all he can hear is the bullets and all he sees is the torn-apart body of Monomi on the ground, all scraps of cloth and bullets.

“Now then, I think I’ve made my point!” Monokuma says gleefully. “Mmm, such despair-- so wonderful!”

He explains the new rules in their handbooks -- of course they are -- and he’s gone, leaving them…leaving them alone. The Monobeasts are gone, too.

“What...what just happened?” He manages weakly, trying to keep his voice...at least, he needs to speak. If his voice is shaking and his face is pale, so is everyone else’s.

The others begin arguing, and he barely listens. He knows what’s being said, it’s...it’s obvious. Who’s doing this, why are they doing this, this can’t be real. Of course they’re asking those questions, disbelieving this situation. Who could possibly be alright with it? Such despair...there wasn’t supposed to be despair here. Not here, not in this place. This was meant to be an island full of _hope_. Hope and peace and happiness. And now it was...again, now it was all ruined. As the panic ebbs, anger rises -- how dare this happen! This is his hope, his only hope, his last hope. This is the most important thing in his _life_. He won’t-- he won’t let it go this way!

He won’t let despair win. Not now and not ever. Not again. And not to _them_.

“...we need to be cautious of ourselves,” he hears Togami say, then, and the words send a primal horror bolting through his chest. “Being brought here, to some strange island with people we don’t know, and told to kill each other to get away… that sort of thing brings fear, and the desire to escape that fear...that’s our worst enemy.”

Everyone is silent at that, and Nagito looks around, looking at everyone looking at each other. Their faces-- they all say the same thing. Will someone kill me? Will I kill someone? The fear, the hopelessness…

“No,” Nagito insists, and a few of them look startled. “He’s right, but...we have to trust each other. We’re Ultimates, aren’t we? We’re...we aren’t going to kill each other. We’re symbols of hope. Something like this...we’ll be alright.”

Most of them look skeptical, but a few smile, a few relax a little -- he’ll take that. If he can give them hope, he’s useful, and...and this might be okay. He has to make it okay. He’ll fight for every scrap of hope he can give them, now more than ever. They’ll believe, they’ll make it, and no one will die. _No one_.

Everyone scatters, then, wandering off in pairs or alone -- probably back to the hotel, the cottages -- and he’s left alone with Chiaki. “...why is this happening?” He asks her, voice quiet and trembling. “How could this happen?”

“I...don’t know,” she admits, looking up at him. “But...we’ll prevent it. Don’t...don’t worry, Nagito. You and I will...make sure everyone is okay. We promised we would...right?”

He manages a smile down at her. “Right,” he says. “We promised. This is our hope-- _they’re_ our hope. We’ll protect them.” She nods, and he sets off. Their rooms are...his is next to Togami’s, he remembers that. Next to Togami’s and across from Nekomaru. Chiaki is on the other side, right by the path, and...he didn’t really recall the others’. But as he’s heading to his, he nearly walks into Hajime, who’s coming from the pool area.

“Oh,” he says. “Hajime…” He looks horrible, exhausted and shaken and frightened, but Nagito supposes they all look like that.

“...Nagito,” he says, and the relief in his voice is...he can’t imagine why he sounds so relieved. They didn’t know each other, even before, and-- all he really did was help him out, earlier. Because he was the other outcast, the other one that didn’t fit in this puzzle. He’d introduced him to everyone...that was it. Why would he be relieved? “It’s...this is a lot, isn’t it…?”

“...yeah,” he agrees. “I...it definitely is. Are you okay…?”

Hajime manages a laugh, strained and tense. “Not at all,” he tells him candidly. “I just-- I kinda just want to scream. This is-- _damn_ it…”

“No one’s going to die, Hajime,” Nagito says firmly, though he doesn’t think his expression is as reassuring as his voice. “We...we’re all going to get out of this together. We’re classmates, aren’t we? Students of Hope’s Peak. Ultimates. We’re...symbols of hope. There’s no way this will all happen like Monokuma wants.” Well, he thinks... _Hajime_ isn’t an Ultimate. Not really. But he’s part of this, too, and it isn’t right to abandon him. Not the other outcast.

Hajime blinks, and then manages a very faint, shaky smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “You’re...really nice, Nagito,” he says after a moment. “Thanks. I’m...I hope you’re right.”

He walks away, then, and though Nagito doesn’t think he’s convinced him of anything, he...tried. He’d tried and that was what mattered. He’d keep saying it as long as it takes….no one would die. No one.

This was his hope. They were his hope. This was...there was no way he’d allow Monokuma -- allow _Junko Enoshima_ \-- to take this away from him again. She would _not_ take this hope away from them! Not again!

He’d...protect them this time, be useful to them. This time he’d _succeed_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Nagito...he's a bit more fragile and panicky here, isn't he? Not that I blame him.
> 
> He's still our boy, though! Devoted to his hope and his classmates, just...well. It's A Lot. At least he has Chiaki with him! I'm sure you can figure out what he's doing here on Jabberwock, honestly.
> 
> I wonder if you can guess how chapter 1's murder will differ now that Nagito is less 'Let's Murder For Hope :D' Crazy and more NOTHING IS GOING TO GO WRONG Crazy...hmm.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 1: Killing Island Begins -- Daily Life.

The next morning...Nagito had hoped it was a nightmare, just another one of his nightmares. But he knew it wasn’t. That was worse-- this was really happening. Their hopeful island paradise had...been plunged into despair. Another killing game. The worst of all his worst nightmares, the things that dragged him screaming to wakefulness more nights than not. And this time it was _his_ class.

His class, forced into this. His class, made to play this game. He wouldn’t let it happen, though. This was his hope. They were-- they would survive. They _had_ to survive.

He pushes the door to his cottage open drowsily, wondering what they’d have to do today, what they could do-- and yelps in surprise as someone grabs his arm.

“B-Byakuya?” He manages, staring at the pudgy man. No, the impostor-- he knows that now, knows it isn’t him just like now he knows it wasn’t Ryota back then-- but still, he’s Togami right now, and...he has to run with that. “What do you--”

“I need your help,” he says flatly. “Come with me.”

Nagito blinks, startled enough that he simply allows himself to be dragged into the hotel and up into the restaurant. Once there he’s released, and he simply sags into a chair. What-- needs his help? Him? “Why-- why me, Byakuya?” He asks. “You can’t possibly need _my_ help. I‘m...just lucky. I’m not really all that special…” He’s the most worthless of worthless people, honestly, it’s-- he can’t think of any reason why _his_ help is needed. Even if he’s trying hard to keep it together, keep himself managed and under control -- Miaya’s been good at helping him with that over the years, but it’s harder now than it was yesterday with all this stress -- he can’t change how he thinks. He can project an appearance of calm and control, he can make somewhat reasonable guesses on what to do or not to do, but he can’t... _change_ how difficult those things are, how worthless he feels. Pretending is the best he’s got.

“You are,” Togami insists. “What you said last night clearly had an effect on some of us. I want to keep everyone together, and to do that they need a leader. Of course, that’s going to be me, but I want your help, Nagito. You want to make sure no one dies as much as I do, I can tell. And I can tell you mean it. So...I want you to help me. You’ll be my underling-- understood?”

Nagito blinks. “...Your...underling?” He manages, and the surprise is enough to conceal the rest of his emotions, the tears threatening to form in his eyes. He...wants his help. _His_ help. Togami wants him. Specifically _him_ , specifically his _help_. He can be _useful--_ “I’ll...of course, Byakuya. We’ll keep everyone safe. I swear it...”

“Good,” Togami says firmly, and then offers him a slight smile. “You and I, we’ll protect everyone. No one will die on this island.” He holds out a hand, and Nagito takes it, and they shake. He can’t...believe this is happening. Working together with one of his classmates...his classmate _wanting_ his help...it’s more of a miracle than he’d ever thought would happen, even here. But-- it happened. And he’s going to make sure he can live up to these expectations. Be useful for Togami, make sure they succeed.

* * *

 

Together -- well, mostly, as Togami had decided to stay in the restaurant -- they gathered the others to join them, or at least told some of them to get everyone else to the restaurant. Nagito wasn’t quite sure what the other wanted to say, besides ‘i’m going to be leader’, but it was still important enough to be said. Just what he’d expect from the Ultimate Heir! Well...it wasn’t the real Togami, but the Ultimate Impostor-- but that means he, too, was just as skilled at his talent, to pretend to be someone else so skillfully.

Ah, these people...these Ultimates. They were just as amazing as he remembered. It was so wonderful to be around them again, around these….around the hopes they had once been. He’d missed them so much, so powerfully. To be with them again--! And because he was with them again, fulfilling the thing he’d hoped for for so long...he’d protect them.

Hajime is the last one in -- well, he and Kazuichi, eventually, dragged back by Mahiru -- and the brunet gives him a tired smile that warms his heart. Are they...friends? That’s strange. The Reserve boy seems to...like him? Well...maybe he shouldn’t call him that, given-- but no. This person here on this island, Hajime Hinata, is talentless. That’s...it should bother him. It does! That a talentless person thinks he’s-- but still...they’re alike. They both loved Hope’s Peak just that much…

It’s complicated, and he’s not good at complicated things.

He smiles back, though, and waves. They eat breakfast quickly, and then Togami stands to speak. “Before we continue, I’d like to pose a question to you all,” he says. “That...Monokuma, he ordered us to kill each other-- in circumstances like these, what do you think we need?”

“Who the fuck cares?” Fuyuhiko grumbles. “Just get to the damn point.”

“If you want me to get to my point, answer my question,” Togami says, but Nagito isn’t sure they can. He loved them, he did, but they were...well, Ultimates. Very eccentric. Whatever answer they might come up with would be...likely not the one Togami wanted.

“Uh...food and sleep, right?” Akane suggests.

“No!” Nekomaru says. “You’ve forgotten one thing-- the answer is a good appetite, a good night’s sleep, and a good shit!”

The group groans, and Nagito badly stifles a laugh as Togami looks very put upon. “...Do you mean a bond?” He suggests finally, taking pity on the other man. “After all, we’re Ultimates. As long as we work together, I believe there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. You’re all symbols of hope, after all! Together we’ll be able to overcome any despair. So...we just have to promise each other to work together, right?” It wasn’t quite the answer Togami was looking for, he’s aware, but...it’s _his_ answer. This is why he wasn’t the leader! He can only say what he believes, no matter if it’s not what he’s _supposed_ to say.

“Oh my god, did you really just say that with a straight face?” Hiyoko asks, snorting. “Wow.”

Nagito laughs. “It’s...a bit lame, isn’t it?” He agrees. “Sorry.”

“No, he has a point,” Peko says, startling him. “After all, Monokuma is attempting to enforce a rule to make us doubt each other.”

Togami nods. “Indeed...it was well said, Nagito, and you are right-- it’s impossible to face our enemy alone, and that is why we need to band together as a group.” He smiles faintly at Nagito, and Nagito honestly isn’t sure what to do with all this praise. It doesn’t make sense, he hadn’t given him the answer he _wanted_ , so why…? “However, a bond isn’t enough, unfortunately. We need something more.”

“...something more?” Chiaki asks.

“What we need right now is disciplined leadership,” Togami says firmly. “With an unmistakable leader.”

Nekomaru nodded sagely. “Even sports teams need captains,” he agrees.

“And rejoice, all of you--” Togami concludes. “I will accept the position. Now, let’s wrap this up and get to the main question.”

“Wait wait wait,” Mahiru protests among the others’ surprise. “That’s too forceful! Deciding that all on your own-- and why does it have to be you, of all people!? Seriously, you’re being too forceful! I don’t care if you’re the Ultimate Heir or whatever, wait a minute!”

Nagito stands to stand next to Togami, holding up his hands placatingly. “Please, hang on, Mahiru,” he says. “It’s-- I know he might be be a little forceful, but since our situation is...I think it’s okay. After all, isn’t it a leader’s duty to be kind of forceful like this?”

Sonia waves off the offer Mahiru extends to her, and smiles at Nagito, who stiffens in surprise. “Are you working with Byakuya as well, Nagito? I recall what you said last night.”

“I-- yes,” he says, sheepishly. “We’re working together.”

“Of course,” Togami says, nodding sagely. “Nagito is devoted to the same goal I am-- don’t worry, everyone. As long as I’m leader, with Nagito’s help, no one will be a victim.” he holds out a hand. “I will guide you all! I promise that much on my name as Togami.”

The relieved faces of the others makes Nagito smile. _He really is living up to the role he’s playing, isn’t he?_ Though, granted, the real Togami wasn’t... _quite_ as kind as this, but he supposes a little liberty needs to be taken. He remembers how he was _back then_ , and...that isn’t the sort of attitude that’s needed here. This isn’t a game.

“Now,” Togami says commandingly. “I have something to show you all-- it’s at the park. Follow me!”

He leaves the restaurant with the air of someone expecting to be followed, and with a few surprised and slightly irritated mutterings, everyone complies.

Nagito takes his time -- mostly because he trusts Togami to wait until they were all present, but also because running so early in the morning would probably not be a good idea -- and as he heads towards the part, he can see the Monobeasts sitting menacingly in front of most of the bridges. So that’s what Monokuma was using them for...it made sense. With the reassurance of leadership Nagito isn’t quite so afraid of them, but he does pick up his pace all the same. They’d be alright. They’d all be alright.

The thing he wants to show them is plainly obvious when they all got there, and a chill runs down Nagito’s spine at the huge, round object that at where the statue once was. A bomb…? No, he realizes. A _timer_. Twenty-one days...no, that couldn’t be right. The program was meant to be _fifty_ days...what happened? How did he cut the time nearly in half?! Did it mean something else? What could…what could it mean?

“I found it this morning when I was exploring the island one more time,” Togami says, and Nagito registers it, but he’s not paying attention anymore. What was this? What was the timer counting down to? It wasn’t the program shutdown, that was-- did he really reduce the time of the program that much? But why would he...what reason did he have? What was his plan? What…

He doesn’t hear much of the conversation that follows, but he does hear Monomi showing up -- poor thing, he’s not sure if she has unlimited spares anymore without her wand. She’ll have to be careful. She doesn’t seem to know what it is either, and that’s definitely not good. If even _she_ didn’t know...she’s chased off, after that, and though Nagito does pity her, it’s understandable. She _is_ very suspicious, especially now that Monokuma had altered her appearance. Well, Chiaki was closer to her than he was. She’ll talk to her later, he’s sure. He has to focus on the now, on the others. On protecting them.

He winces slightly when Togami brings up Jabberwock’s resort status, but it goes unnoticed. Damn, they really _are_ Ultimates. How wonderful, how smart they are, how clever, but...figuring things out too fast might not be to their benefit. He doesn’t want to stop them, though. They were Ultimates! How could someone like him dare to tell them not to do something, not to try figuring something out? He had no right to do that.

“I mean…” Togami says. “This has to be the work of some kind of enormous organization.”

Nagito blinks. Oh. Oh, no. Well, it’s right of them to think that, because it’s very true, but...they shouldn’t blame the killing game on them. Oh, god, they can’t do that. It wasn’t them. It wasn’t them at all. They can’t talk like that, if they do-- they’ll think it was them who...they’ll start mistrusting, or-- he shakes that off as they talk about figuring things out, and he decides to let it go. Again, he has no right to tell the others not to try figuring things out, not someone so worthless as him. It was true, too, this was the work of an organization. Maybe if they find out, they’ll trust that the Future Foundation knows what it’s doing, and that the killing game wasn’t them. He wasn’t supposed to get too involved in that, and with this...it’s more important for him to keep everyone alive. He doesn’t care about anything else. He’ll make sure his hope stays alive, _their_ hope stays alive. Whatever else happens doesn’t matter. He’ll save them for sure.

“We should listen to Byakuya,” he says finally, once there’s a lull in the conversation. “We don’t need to waste our energy on things like this! This is a terrible situation, I know, but it could be worse. We’re together, aren’t we? We have friends we can count on.”

Hiyoko groans. “You just keep saying lame things!” She complains. “Do you even hear yourself?”

Nagito just laughs sheepishly, and they and the others all wander off. He’s not sure what everyone’s doing, honestly, if they’re exploring or investigating or just trying to calm themselves down, but that’s okay. He has faith in them. Nothing will go wrong. No one is going to get hurt or die. This is hope, they’re all hope. Monokuma’s despair isn’t...it can’t touch them. It won’t. It _won’t_.

He stops himself, shaking his head. He’ll just make himself panic if he keeps running around in circles in his head. It’s incredibly difficult to stop it, especially now, but he knows...he knows that he can’t let it happen. The past few years, he’s learned at least how to catch himself before he falls into a hole in his head, and it’s been a struggle to keep those lessons in mind, but until yesterday he’d been...a lot better than he’d been at the start. Now, though-- he can feel himself slipping, and it worries him. He can’t fall apart-- they need him! He might be worthless, but Togami is relying on his help, and he has to protect and save the others. He’d made that promise to him, to Chiaki...he can’t let them down. They have expectations of him, and he...he has to make sure he doesn’t disappoint them. This is his hope, the thing he’s wanted for so long. He can’t...he’s on the bottom rung of Ultimates, _barely_ an Ultimate, but...he has to do what he can. He can’t fail again.

* * *

He finds Chiaki in the hotel, at the game consoles. She’s focused on the game she’s playing, and at first doesn’t notice he’s joined her. Eventually, though, she speaks up, not looking at him. “Hi, Nagito,” she says amid the beeps and boops. “Do you want to play with me?”

“You know I can’t,” he says with a laugh. “It wouldn’t be fair.” Even if it isn’t...it’s still nice. It’s still Chiaki. He’s...grateful for this. But even so, it really wouldn’t be fair! Despite the state of his luck, he doesn’t think playing competitively is a good idea. “I like watching you, anyway,” he adds. “The Ultimate Gamer...it’s always wonderful to see you in action. Your talent is amazing.”

She smiles a little, still looking at the screen. “It’s more fun with others,” she tells him, and something in his chest aches at how familiar that sounds. “But if you like watching, that’s okay, too. As long as you’re here.”

They sit like that for a while, until he hears footsteps and glances up. “Oh, hello, Hajime,” he says with a smile, and Chiaki echoes it without looking up. “What are you up to?”

“Uh...nothing, really,” he admits, shifting awkwardly. “You guys are...playing games again?”

“Well, Chiaki is,” Nagito says, and Hajime snorts, looking vaguely embarrassed. “But that’s obvious, right?”

“Yeah…” Hajime admits, shrugging sheepishly. “Stupid question.” he watches for a bit, uncertain, and Nagito nudges Chiaki. The girl glances up and then sits back, nodding.

“Play with me,” she says, gesturing at the seat across from her. “I’ll teach you if you don’t know how.”

Hajime blinks, and then smiles, taking a seat. “It’s _Gala Omega,_ right? I know this one. I’ve never played with anyone before, though...”

“You do?” Chiaki asks excitedly. “That’s great...come on, let’s play, Hajime.” She taps the ‘new game’ button, settling in, and Hajime takes the other set of controls with a smile.

Nagito watches as they play, smiles on their faces, and it’s enough to bring a smile to his own. That’s nice...it’s nice, that they’re having fun. This is what their island trip was supposed to be like. Happiness, and friendship, and hope. Having fun, making good memories. Maybe there were concerns about that, maybe it wasn’t exactly _right_...but honestly, Nagito didn’t care. If this is what it took to get his classmates back, there was nothing he wouldn’t do, nothing he wouldn’t approve of. For hope, he’d do anything. For them, he’d do _anything_. Even if it didn’t seem right to others, Nagito didn’t care. This was right to him.

“Nagito,” Hajime asks eventually. “I, uh...thanks for last night. And yesterday, too, when you took me around the island...I didn’t thank you. You’ve been doing so much to help me, I was just thinking I should thank you.”

Nagito goes pink. “O-Oh, you don’t have to do that,” he says hurriedly. “I haven’t really done anything worth your thanks, Hajime! But I…” Talentless Reserve Course Hajime...thanking him. It shouldn’t really be anything special, he should just accept the thanks. It’s not like it’s an _Ultimate_ thanking him. But at the same time...this boy is like him, the outcast, the one who loved talent. “...If someone like me was useful to you, even a little, then it...makes me happy to be thanked by you.”

It was strange, he thinks. It _did_ make him happy.

“Oh, c’mon, you’re being too hard on yourself,” Hajime scolds.

He knows Chiaki is watching him, but Nagito shakes his head. “My talent is just being lucky,” he says with a sad smile. “It’s not like it comes from working hard, or like it can do anything really useful or amazing. Regardless of its existence, if it even...I’m really just too unimpressive to matter, you know. Not like everyone else here, haha…” Especially now. Especially with the luck he’s had since that day. He’s less than worthless now, his talent is...it’s not even a talent anymore.

“Hey,” Hajime says, shaking his head. “Don’t say stuff like that. You know, my talent might be worse than yours...it’s not like I can remember it.”

His words catch in his throat, then. He knows the truth here, he knows-- but he’d promised. He’d promised not to tell. They’d _made_ him promise. But...he doesn’t know. Hajime doesn’t know. And he’s so full of _hope_...he sees his face, and even if he doesn’t like lying about something that’s so important to him, lying about talent, the uncertain hope in Hajime’s eyes-- he doesn’t like the idea of taking that hope away. If he has to choose...he’ll always, always choose hope.

“That’s not true,” he says. “You’re part of Hope’s Peak, aren’t you? I’m sure whatever talent you have is amazing! It has to be.” He watches Hajime go a little red, but a smile appears on his face and his shoulders relax, and he thinks he did say the right thing for once, after all. “Hm. why don’t I help you remember?” He offers, knowing anything he says will be a lie, but -- it’s a nice smile. “Let’s see...haha, what about Ultimate Clumsy Student?”

Hajime laughs, reaching over to shove at him. “Hey!” He says. “I mean...considering I forgot my own talent, that’s kind of accurate...but still!”

Chiaki glances up slightly. “Ultimate Spiky Hair?” She offers quietly, a smile on her own face.

“That’s not even a talent!” Hajime protests, but he’s still laughing.

Nagito laughs as well, and so does Chiaki. “It’s going to be fine, Hajime,” he tells him. “I’m...sure that whatever talent you have, it’s...full of hope.” It wasn’t entirely a lie, that time, was it? Full of hope...he _was_ , in a way. But all the same, it had been easier than he’d thought to lie about something like this. When it came down to it...he’d rather give someone hope than take it away, even if it meant lying about something as important as talent.

And if lying meant that he could make them laugh and smile like this, carefree and relaxed...it’s useful. _He’s_ useful.

* * *

It was late that night when Monokuma called them all back to the park. That was more than a little concerning, as far as Nagito was concerned, but...they didn’t have much choice. With those Monobeasts, they didn’t have the luxury of refusing.

When they got there...Nagito isn’t sure if he’s already fallen asleep, or if this is really happening. It...he wouldn’t put it past Monokuma, he supposes, but-- is this really happening? What in the-- he steps forward when Monomi appears, not really liking wherever this is going, but Chiaki tugs him back by the back of his jacket. Right, he can’t get involved, really...but still, this is awful. He’s never been a real fan of comedy in general, because most humor goes over his head and he doesn’t get it, but...humor that involves humiliating someone is the worst kind, he thinks. And of course Monokuma would have fun doing that to the poor rabbit...he can tell everyone else is uncomfortable, too -- well, maybe not Hiyoko -- so he supposes that’s good, but...still, what is Monokuma’s plan? What does he think this will accomplish besides upsetting them all?

They’re all already on edge, Fuyuhiko having been-- well, _Fuyuhiko_ before the show had started and claimed he was willing to kill someone...Nagito knows he’s too kind beneath his bluster to follow through, but the others don’t, and he can tell they’re worried. He hopes...he hopes they all get along anyway. They’re all good people! Wonderful people. He loves them so much, even if they never cared about him. He hopes they can see that too, soon, and become friends.

But...this show is just making it worse, despite Togami’s best efforts beforehand.

And then-- Monokuma says something that cuts through the air like a knife, and Nagito’s heart leaps into his throat.

_“Monomi...went out of her way to erase your memories!”_

Oh, no. Everyone goes white, looking around at each other like he’d just said another bad joke, but he keeps repeating it. Stole their memories, stole the memories of their school life...it was true. She had. They had. They’d _had_ to. There’d been no other way. But--

The looks on their faces...they don’t see it that way.

They’re panicking, demanding answers, and Monokuma is as viciously vague as always -- he only gives them the worst information, and lets them despair over the details he never says. They didn’t do it to be cruel, Nagito wants to argue. It was the only way to save them. But he can’t say a thing, and he bites his tongue hard. The words jumble up in his mouth, and he holds them there-- he’s so close to blurting it out, just...saying it, trying to defend this, trying to tell them this isn’t their fault, this was supposed to help them-- logic says he can’t. He’d been told not to. He can’t grasp the why of a lot of things he’s told to do or not do, but he knows how important this is, so he...he swallows them back.

“Don’t worry!” Monokuma says cheerily, then. “I can give them back!”

...Well, now his tongue is bleeding, Nagito muses absently. Ow. But still, at least it had kept him from screaming a denial at the stupid bear. Still-- no. No, he can’t do that. He can’t _do_ that. Can he? Does he have administrative powers, did he take them from Monomi? But he can’t! They can’t have them back! Not _those!_ They can’t...they can’t remember that. They just can’t.

Oh-- oh no, he realizes. It’s a motive. To kill for the memories...oh, please, let it not be enough to start anything. Let their hope beat this.

“...you guys don’t know each other, though,” Monokuma says, making him realize he’s missed things again. “So _that_ means...you have no idea there are traitors among you!”

Nagito’s blood goes to ice. _He knows_. The bear laughs. “Why are there sixteen of you?” He asks innocently. “As far as I’m aware...only _fourteen_ students were meant to be here! That means-- that means two of you are _traitors,_ traitors I don’t even know about!” He snickers, mouth behind a paw. “Juuuust kidding~!”

Oh, he knows, Nagito thinks again. If he hadn’t, why else had he said two? There was no reason to make up an extra traitor if he didn’t _know_. After all, Chiaki was...she was obvious. He wasn’t. So...he _had_ to know. And now they knew, too, the others-- and they’d doubt…

Monokuma makes it worse. ‘If one of you is planning to kill someone’, he says. ‘Wouldn’t it make sense for someone like that to get killed’, he says. They’re all thinking it now, even Hajime-- is the traitor going to kill them? Is the traitor going to hurt them? He wants to argue, but he’s afraid that if he opens his mouth, he’ll say something he isn’t supposed to.

“Stop it,” Togami says firmly, and he relaxes, relieved. “There’s no way any of us is a traitor. It’s pointless to even consider it.”

Peko sighs. “Well...Monomi,” she says, turning to the rabbit, who freezes. “You would know. Is what Monokuma said true…? About our memory loss, and about the traitors…?”

“U-Um,” she stammers. She’s almost worse than him, Nagito thinks. “E-Everyone needs to look forward to the future. You shouldn’t look b-back upon the past. L-Let’s do our very best, a-and keep our eyes fixed to the future!” She flees after that, and Nagito tries to stifle a groan. That was ridiculous…no way is anyone going to believe or trust her now! At least he’d kept himself quiet! It was hard, but he felt like he deserved credit for managing it.

The group exchanges looks, afraid and concerned and uncertain, but they all drift back off to their cottages. Another day, another night, no deaths. Nagito isn’t sure if he should be relieved or not. At least...at least no one is dead. That’s a plus. Even if they’re all afraid, even if they’re on edge, no one’s died yet. As long as they all stay alive, they can beat this!

They will beat this, he tells himself firmly, curled up beneath his covers. His classmates are incredible. They’re amazing. If...if anyone can beat this without anyone dying, it’s them. They’re his hope, after all. Of course they will.

...he can at least keep telling himself that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay first of all that FTE was the cutest thing in the world to write and I Am Dying.
> 
> Secondly, I'm probably going to skim over some things, mostly because a good 80% of this is still going to go the same way, so it's not really necessary to show everything -- and it's not from Hajime's point of view, either, so Nagito isn't going to be involved with much of those shenanigans. Either way, if something's important, it will be here!
> 
> Thirdly, it's very fun to write a Nagito who's aware enough to know that he has issues with certain things and who has had enough of a support system to learn how to cope properly with that. It's still very hard without proper impulse control, but he's managing. For now, anyway. One can only hang onto one's self-management skills for so long when the blood starts to flow.
> 
> (Also him knowing Hajime's talentless from the start makes this very interesting! He's torn between not wanting to care about someone without any talent, and being drawn to him anyway...this will be fun ouo)
> 
> Next time: the party.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 1: Killing Island Begins -- Daily Life

The next morning feels like it comes too soon, and it’s with no small level of reluctance that Nagito untangles himself from the blankets a good half an hour before the morning announcement goes off. He hates it already, those stupid wake-up and goodnight calls -- is he going to do it every day? _Ugh_. At least he’s a light sleeper to begin with, so...he wakes up early. He won’t have to be woken up by that damn bear’s voice.

When he steps out of the cottage, Byakuya is waiting there again for him, and there’s something in the other man’s eyes that sends ice down his spine. “Nagito,” he says. “Come with me. I need to show you something.” His voice is quiet, and with everyone else still mostly asleep...that cold sensation in his gut just gets worse. He nods quietly and follows him to his cottage, where the large Heir turns and simply holds out a piece of paper to him. The handwriting is intentionally as blocky and childish as possible, and Nagito doesn’t recognize it -- whoever it was probably made and effort to make it hard to tell who wrote it -- but it does say something...he swallows. _‘There’s gonna be a murder soon,’_ it says, and it’s unsigned.

“What...are we going to do?” He asks, feeling a little distant. Who would-- why would-- why would _anyone_ do something like this?! All these people, so full of hope, the people he’d always idolized and wished so hard to be part of, been so happy to be among...he’d hoped this wouldn’t-- he’d hoped he could keep them together, keep anything from happening now that this nightmare was beginning. They weren’t-- they weren’t those people anymore. Why would anyone have it in them to hurt anyone?

Byakuya takes his arms firmly, and he blinks, surprised at the contact. “We’ll stop it,” he tells Nagito, voice serious and insistent, like he’s making a final judgment -- ah, what a good leader he is! “As long as I’m alive, there’s not going to be any murder on this island. I have a plan, don’t worry, Nagito. We’re all meeting for breakfast again, and you’ll see then. But when we’re getting ready, I want you to help me. You’re my underling, after all. I’ll need you to make sure this goes smoothly.”

“...with those words, Byakuya, I’m reassured,” Nagito says with a smile. He has to be! If he isn’t, then...that would just be inconsiderate of him. And...that’s not entirely a lie. “We’ll make sure of it. I believe in your leadership skills! You’re the Ultimate Heir, after all!” He steps away. “Just tell me what you need me to do, Byakuya, and I’m your man.” He’ll do anything. Anything it takes, anything he has to in order to make sure that hope stays alive on this island. To make sure that the _people_ do.

For now, it seems they just need to meet in restaurant, and he heads that way after Byakuya. Eventually they all arrive, all of them, and Nagito glances from face to face, uncertainty coiling in his chest. Who had sent that note? Someone here had to have done it, but who? And...can he bring himself to doubt anyone? He doesn’t want to.

Well-- almost everyone’s here, he realizes. Fuyuhiko is absent. But...he doesn’t think that’s anything to worry about. He wants to trust the other -- he knows he’s nicer than he acts, after all, he doesn’t want to think he’d actually _hurt_ anyone.

“It’s alright,” Byakuya says, shaking his head. “He doesn’t seem like the type of person who’d come even if forced. Ah, well...we should just talk anyway. Someone can tell him everything later.”

The others seem puzzled. “Talk?” Hajime asks. “About...what?”

“Well,” Byakuya proclaims. “Be happy, all of you -- I have decided to throw a party tonight.” The others look among themselves, startled, and Nagito blinks. Ah! So that was it! That made perfect sense, he decides. If he’s worried about someone doing something dangerous, then bringing them all into the same room would help keep an eye on everyone. That makes a lot of sense, and Nagito is so proud of it. He loves these people...surely, surely they’ll make sure nothing goes wrong!

“A p-party?” Mikan asks, confused.

Byakuya nods. “Yes, a party. It will last all night, until dawn. And just to make myself clear, I won’t tolerate any absences. You all are required to attend.”

“B-But,” Kazuichi stammers. “Now’s r-really not the time for a party!” A few people agree with him, muttering dissent.

Nagito shakes his head. “No, he’s right,” he insists. “Because of this kind of situation...it won’t do us any good to dwell on our bad feelings and avoid each other. Really, it’s a great idea, to do something that will just strengthen our friendship with each other, right?” He smiles. “Isn’t that why you suggested it?” He knows it isn’t, of course! But there’s no way he’ll let everyone else know that. They can’t know about the note. And with any luck, it won’t matter! They’ll prevent anything from happening.

Luck...oh, he hopes his luck holds. It’s been...so broken since then, nothing good happening to him to the point where he’s afraid he’s used up all his good luck, but this once, he tries to hope that it will change. This situation...his luck _has_ to finally turn around.

“It doesn’t really matter,” Byakuya says. “But if that’s how you’d like to see it, then feel free. As long as we’re all together in once place tonight.”

It doesn’t take long for everyone to agree to the party, the mood lifting by inches, and Nagito can’t help but smile along with the others. A party...yes, this is sure to be a good idea! They’ll all be together, and together they can...their hope can shine bright. It will be just like old times, back then, the class having fun together. They can forget about despair, about any terrible plans they had.

The idea of where to hold it comes up, and...an enclosed space, huh? Somewhere it’s hard for Monokuma to get into...no, the restaurant and the cottages won’t work, so-- ah! “I-If I can suggest something,” Nagito begins. “What about that old building next to the hotel? If we all can clean it up, I think it would be perfect! It’s pretty much the only place that fits our requirements, too, isn’t it?”

“That’s true enough,” Peko agrees. “However, Monomi’s forbidden us to enter there, if I remember correctly. Something about renovations…”

As if on cue, the rabbit appears among their feet, causing Kazuichi and Mikan to stumble back a little. “I heard your conversation!” She says brightly. “With my own ears and everything!”

“Your ears?” Byakuya asks. “How strange...then what about the cameras? Are they only for Monokuma’s use?”

Monomi droops at the question, answering it for them, and Nagito takes pity on her, bending over with his hands on his knees to speak to her. “Well, that’s okay,” he says. “Regardless, Monomi, if you heard us, then you know what we were talking about. Were you going to tell us something about the old building?”

“Oh!” She says. “Yes! I-If it’s to strengthen everyone’s friendships, then you’re absolutely allowed to use it! I’m happy to cooperate if it’s for everyone’s sake, so we can all have a wonderful party together!”

“Together?” Hiyoko says with a sneer. “Well, _that’s_ not happening. I mean, you’re so gross! You should totally stay away from mirrors, your reflection’ll just kill you.”

Nagito winces as Monomi vanishes away -- goodness, he’d forgotten how cruel Hiyoko could be, and this situation probably wasn’t helping the girl’s nerves -- but with that situation resolved, the question turns to cleaning it. He wants to volunteer, of course, because he knows he’s very good at cleaning, but Byakuya probably needs him to help with the other preparations. That’s unfortunate, but...he supposes he can deal with it. He can be useful some other way!

No one else seems to want to do it, though, so he sighs. “Hey, I have an idea,” he says. “Does anyone have a piece of paper and a pen?” Confused looks are exchanged, but Chiaki obediently digs a little notebook out of her backpack, and Nagito rips a piece of paper out of it, carefully tearing it into sixteen pieces. On one of the pieces he draws an X, making sure it stands out, and then gathers the scraps up in his hands. Oh...no, this won’t work. He glances around the room, and then-- “Kazuichi, can we borrow your hat?” He asks candidly. The mechanic blinks, and then catches on, nodding and handing over his beanie.

Nagito puts the scraps in it, and shakes it a little before holding it out. “Okay,” he says cheerfully. “Whoever gets the marked piece of paper is who gets to clean it. Is that fair?”

The others agree, and one by one, they pull the scraps. Nagito’s is blank -- that’s fine! He had kind of hoped his luck would let him be the one to clean, but...he suppose he does have to help Byakuya, so that’s fine in the end, right? -- and he waits to see who gets the marked paper...and braces himself when he catches on who did.

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!” Hiyoko shrieks, waving her X-marked slip of paper. “No way, I won’t do it, I refuse! I can’t do it, my kimono will just get dirty! No way no way! You must have _cheated_ , you stupid ugly shitface! Make the pigshit do it!”

“H-Hiyoko…” Nagito says nervously, laughing awkwardly. “I’m sure you’ll be fine, we all decided on the lottery…”

“Yeah,” Mahiru says with a smile. “Listen, I can help you tie your sleeves back so they won’t get in your way! Don’t worry too much about it, okay? It won’t be hard. Just take it one room at a time.” Her smile gets just a little serious. “You should learn how to take care of things yourself, you know, you’ll be an adult one day, right? You can’t rely on people to do it for you, especially when boys can be _so_ unreliable.”

Hiyoko’s nose crinkles up and it looks like she’s going to burst into crocodile tears for a moment, but then she puffs out her cheeks and crosses her arms. “Fi~ine,” she says, huffing. “I’ll do it! But you better thank me lots, and bring me tons of sweets as reward!” She turns to Teruteru. “You hear that?! I want tons of dessert for this!”

“Of course, of course,” Teruteru says, sounding slightly terrified -- that’s good, Nagito thinks. As long as he doesn’t even think about coming onto her, of all people. “I-I’ll be sure to make you something wonderful, Hiyoko. Y-You can even taste-test!”

The arrangements made -- and after Mahiru tied the sleeves of Hiyoko’s kimono back for her a bit of bandage borrowed from Mikan -- she and the cook head to the old building to prepare, and the others split up for the day. That just left Nagito and Byakuya, and the Heir heads out to the convenience store -- Nagito follows obediently, wondering what sort of thing they needed there.

* * *

“Wo--w,” Nagito says, amazed, wandering down the aisles behind Byakuya, who seemed to be looking for something specific. “This store has everything!” Well, he knows it would, or that it _should_ , given where they were, but still. It really did have almost anything he can think of! And even things that didn’t seem like they belonged here…

He stops to look at a rack of toy handcuffs, pulling one off the hook to examine it absently. “Are you finding what you need, Byakuya?” He asks.

“I am,” the other man says, and Nagito turns to see him taking a box with night-vision goggles on it off the shelf. “Just in case,” he adds off the look of confusion on Nagito’s face, and begins unboxing it to put it into the large duralumin case he now sees next to him-- ah! Well, that makes sense.

“Why do you have two cases?” He asks, putting the handcuffs down and picking the cases up for him. “One is to store your equipment, of course, but…?”

“Anything dangerous in the old building,” Byakuya says. “I’m going to make sure no one has anything dangerous on them, and between that and the things in the kitchen, I’ll lock it all up in the case so no one can get it.”

“Oh! Well, that makes perfect sense,” Nagito says with a smile. “I feel stupid for asking. Of course you’ve thought of everything! This is why you’re our leader.” He isn’t sure why he’s even here, honestly...Byakuya has such foresight! He shakes his head, trying not to feel so useless, but...he really is, isn’t he? Byakuya’s doing everything, and he’s just...following like a puppy, hoping to be useful but not actually-- for all his arrogant thoughts of protecting everyone, he really isn’t able to do much, is he?

“Of course I have,” Byakuya says, a hint of condescension in his town that fades a little. “Don’t make that face,” he scolds. “I know what you’re thinking, and as my underling, you’re invaluable even if I haven’t asked anything of you yet. After all, you came up with the location for the party, and managed to get everyone to agree on someone to clean. You _have_ been helpful to me.” he takes the cases from Nagito, who’s stunned silent. “Now, can you go get some locks for me, Nagito? They should be back by the handcuffs you were looking at. Make sure to get the kind with keys.”

Nagito blinks, realizing his face is red, and nods quickly, darting back towards the shelf of locks. He’s been helpful?! He-- he hadn’t thought about it like that, he’d...just did what he thought would-- would make things easier for everyone. He’s really…that makes him happy. That he really has been at least a little useful to someone! It’s nice. He grabs a pair of keyed locks, taking them back to Byakuya. “I’m glad I can be helpful,” he says finally, now the the initial overwhelming emotion has subsided slightly. “That’s the highest honor to me, really, to be useful to you Ultimates.”

“You’re an Ultimate too,” Byakuya says, sounding bemused. “Why talk like you’re separating yourself from us?”

Nagito shakes his head. “I’m...my only talent is luck, really,” he says with a laugh. “I’m not on the same level as any of you. I can only just...bask in your presence, the hope you all embody. So long as I can be of use, I’m happy, really. I don’t really mind it-- as long as I can help, it doesn’t matter to me if I’m...I’m not worthy like you all are.” He means that, too. He’s long since...he’s never belonged with them. They...they all went so far away from him, but they’d been distant from the start-- all he can do is reach out, and-- he can’t hope to ever catch up. But here in the distance, he can do...he can do what little he can to help them keep striding forward towards the light. And in this nightmare, he needs to be able to do that more than ever.

Lost in his thoughts, he’s startled when Byakuya puts the cases down to take him by the shoulders and shake gently. “Don’t say that,” he says seriously. “Even if your talent is just luck, it’s still a talent. You were chosen to be part of our class, so that means you’re one of us.” Something in his eyes...Nagito isn’t sure that it’s _Byakuya_ talking anymore. The impostor himself, now? “You belong with us. No one should stand in the background and tell themselves they’re better off there. Do you understand? Stand _with_ us, Nagito, not behind. It’s where you belong. You can be useful to us by being our friend. You care a great deal, I can tell, so-- don’t convince yourself that no one will appreciate it and stay in a supporting role.”

“I--” Nagito manages, and despite his best effort a tear slides down his face even if he’s still smiling. He had never expected-- he was apart from them, not of their group. He never had been, and he had decided he never would be. He was here to observe and help from the edges, never expecting to be included. That had been...what he’d accepted. He was the outcast, the one left behind. But to think at least one of them wants him to be... _with_ them? He scrubs at his face and smiles more genuinely. “Thank you, Byakuya. It’s...kind of you to say all that. You truly are a wonderful leader.”

The other man coughs, seeming to realize his act had slipped, and then lets go, picking up the cases and shaking his head. “It’s a leader’s duty to motivate his underlings,” he tells him matter-of-factly. “Don’t thank me. Come on, now, we still have things to do before the party.”

“Haha, of course!” Nagito says, nodding and tagging along after him, still holding the locks. Yes, he thinks firmly, almost desperately. Nothing bad was going to happen tonight. Nothing at all. It would be okay.

* * *

The building was...not _spotless_ , and it made Nagito twitch a little, but at least Hiyoko had managed a halfway decent job, even if she complained to them loudly and viciously about how much work she’d had to do. Nagito tried to placate her as best he could, but in the end she’d stormed off to harass Teruteru or something -- well, after Byakuya had checked her for weapons.

He and Nagito went through the building, collecting everything dangerous and putting it in the case -- the storage room hadn’t been touched at all cleaning-wise, piles of stuff everywhere, boxes and all sorts of junk, even irons and cleaning supplies like that, so there really wasn’t much point to toss it for weapons, but they’d harassed Teruteru for utensils as well and locked those up, too. Nagito is honestly impressed with how thorough Byakuya is, but it figures-- he is truly determined to prevent anything from happening! He’s...such a good person. Truly an amazing one, so full of light and hope...Nagito is proud to be helping him.

The group starts to arrive, and he helps Byakuya pat them all down. It’s a little awkward, but he doesn’t mind being scolded or given odd looks! No, he’s used to that sort of thing for a great many reasons -- even nowadays, with a little better control over his tongue, he still sometimes says strange things. He’s managed not to here so far, for the most part, but he’s certain it’s only a matter of time. Even so, this is fine! It’s helping, it’s protecting people.

Eventually everyone gets there -- except Fuyuhiko, who refused to come, but that’s okay, too, because the means if anything did happen (which it _wouldn’t_ ) his absence would mean he was most definitely innocent -- and the party can start.

Well...alright, it can start _after_ Byakuya decides to confiscate the skewers one of the dishes is on. It’s kind of funny all the same, to see Akane and Teruteru’s heartbroken reactions, and after that and Chiaki volunteering to go keep an eye out for Monokuma -- something Nagito knows she’d be good at, given her situation, though he wishes she’d stay and join them -- while Peko grabs some food and goes to watch the case of weapons in the office...they all start their party.

The food truly is delicious, he thinks-- absolutely amazing. Then again, it is _Teruteru’s_ cooking, and he _is_ the Ultimate Chef...there’s no doubt it would be superior to anything else. He’s had it before, too, so he knows how good it is -- and goodness, he’s honestly glad Hiyoko didn’t talk him into putting anything into the food _this_ time. Not that there was anything to put into it! Haha, that wouldn’t have been very fun...it would have certainly been another way to bring them together, though. This is better, anyway, the group of them laughing and talking, smiling brightly...he can feel the hope in the air, something warm and bright and intangible, weak and fragile amid this nightmare but still there all the same. They can forget their fear for a moment or two, tonight, can’t they? Nothing bad will happen, they’ll...they’ll all be friends. He knows they will. And he can almost-- he can almost be brave enough to try stepping into the circle of the rest of them. Well-- he will at some point tonight, he promises himself! He just has to work up the nerve. He hovers by the wall near the air conditioning unit for now, nursing a glass of juice and simply enjoying the others’ happiness, but...he _will_ try. Byakuya had made him think there was a chance. Even if it’s just here, just temporary...he’ll treasure what few glimpses he can manage of being part of them. Once he gets the courage to, at least.

Mahiru is taking pictures, tugging an irritated Hiyoko along with her, and he smiles and waves at the camera when it’s pointed at where he’s standing. This is...this feels warm. Like it was back then, like when she ran the class and they all spent wonderful, peaceful days together, full of hope...he has to brush a tear away from his eyes at the thought. He hopes _she’s_ proud of him for this, even a little bit.

The moment of sad nostalgia turns back to laughter as Nekomaru freaks out about needing the bathroom, his shouts mingling with a distressed Gundam -- had he lost his earring? -- and even Nagito is grinning at the cheerful chaos. He’d missed them so much-- what was that beeping sound, he thinks, briefly, before the lights turn off.

In the dark, his heart skips a beat. What-- why had the lights--?!

“Eeeeeeeh--? A b-blackout?!” Someone shrieks -- he’s not good with voices, is that Ibuki? -- and he hears stumbling footsteps and cries of fright.

“I can’t see anything!” He thinks that was Kazuichi, maybe? What-- wait, hang on, was that some kind of... _light_ under that table? He drops to his knees and starts edging over to it.

“It’s pitch black!” Someone else cries -- no, that’s Ibuki, the first voice was Mahiru -- “My future’s pitch black!”

Pitch black save for...this? His hand hits the tablecloth and he tugs at it, pulling it up to get beneath the table towards the faint light he sees. “Everyone stay calm!” Mahiru shouts again. “We all just have to stay calm right now!”

“Hey, don’t step on my foot!” Hiyoko shouts, but he suddenly can no longer hear anyone shouting. The light...it was a little glow in the dark sticker. No, like five of them, haphazardly stuck on the bottom of the table with one or two fallen on the floorboards, glowing faint green...and surrounding a knife taped to the underside of the table. A knife, like this---? Had someone-- the note, did someone _really_ mean to have--

“What _is_ this?!” He manages, his voice high and vaguely panicked, and reaches for the knife to yank it down and hide it it, get rid of it. His hand hits someone else’s, and for a moment his heart stops, but-- he sees the bulky goggles and relaxes slightly. It’s just Byakuya.

“This is--” He says, shocked, and then he seems to notice something else. “Wait, move!”

Before Nagito can react to that order, Byakuya surges forward and shoves him with both hands, sending him falling back out from beneath the table with a yelp of surprise and pain as he hits the ground hard.

More people keep shouting, but Nagito is frozen. _Wait, move--_ had something-- had he seen something--? What had-- no, oh, god, please no. No no no no _no_. Please, no. _Please no_.

The lights eventually come back on, blinding him, and-- something is going on over somewhere else, maybe Mikan based on the crying and how clumsy she is, but he can’t process it. His eyes are focused on the table, on the tablecloth. He can smell...no. No. _No_ , he’s _wrong_ , he _has_ to be wrong, but he smells-- and-- he’s so scared, he’s scared enough that he’s frozen in place, unable to move, and his heartbeat is very loud in his ears.

“Nagito?” He gasps at the noise, finally realizing something is going on around _him_ , now, and the others are there, and Hajime is crouched beside him. “Are you okay? We can’t find Byakuya anywhere, and Akane said she--” He trails off, then, as if noticing the look of white-faced terror on Nagito’s face, and then turns to look at the tablecloth. “...I’ll check,” he says, something almost frightened in his voice, too, trembling, but all the same, he stands and moves over to it. “There’s...no way,” he says, forcing his voice to sound certain. “Right? Don’t worry, there-- there isn’t any way something’s…” He can’t finish the sentence. Nagito can’t blame him.

All the same, he pulls the tablecloth back with a sharp tug, and--

Someone screams. Maybe it’s Nagito? He isn’t sure, but he knows someone does, faintly. Because Byakuya Togami -- no, the Ultimate Impostor -- is dead, facedown on the floor and covered in blood.

_He’s dead. Someone died. No one was supposed to die-- no one was supposed to die. This can’t be happening it can’t be it can’t be it can’t it can’t it can’t it can’t it can’t it can’t-----_

Well. Fainting is probably not an unusual reaction, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was all like 'ah, Nagito isn't gonna react well to the end of this chapter but he'll be fine' and then Nagito was like 'ah hold my beer' and fainted.
> 
> I also kind of didn't mean for the Impostor to get all inspirational at him, but I guess Nagito's attitude about staying in the background and not minding being invisible kind of hit a nerve. And hey, it, uh, made it more painful for him to die/die saving him?
> 
> (Wow I'm bad with voices I had to go triple check to see who spoke in the dark...)
> 
> Anyway, I'm sure the attempted culprit is kind of obvious, all things considered. I'm not really changing _much._ You'll see the rest at the trial! Investigation is gonna only be one chapter, and then trial time~ That's gonna be _fun._


End file.
